we actually had to make a trip in the night to walgreens because the stench of animal urine in the room was so overpowering we had trouble breathing (febreze & scented candles, plus benadryl to help us with our allergies and/or make us get through a night there). we contemplated driving back home at 1am just to escape the wigwam. we lay awake in our lumpy bed staring the ceiling while a disgustingly dusty wall heater blew at our faces from 6 inches away and contemplated if the tapping behind our head was a gas heater or a rat infestation. we heard random howling of dogs or coyotes in chorus. it was like a horrible kind of camping that took away all the charm of nature and replaced it with all the charm of a dirty trailer park.
at about 3 in the morning, after everyone drunk in a 10 mile radius of rialto had loudly pulled up in a pick up truck with their respective prostitutes, i said to michael "i think of all the hundreds of floors i slept on while on tour, all the times i woke up with something crawling on me, and they don't compare. this is the worst night of sleep i have ever, ever had." he said he had just been thinking the same thing, and told me the story of a time he woke up with his face in a puddle when a campsite he was sleeping at flooded, and how that was better than this.
michael told me he checked to make sure there wasn't a dead body in the shower when we got there. that probably should have been a warning to us to get the hell out.
but it was cool looking.
i am home from ecuador, probably the most amazing vacation i could possibly take. i felt like a little kid: running around all day, hiking and climbing rocks and swimming and being impossibly close to animals, feeling impossibly connected to nature, and when i'd go to sleep at night it was only because i was too tired to run around anymore. amazing. i think everytime i feel oppressed by my responsibilities, tied down to work, cabin feveresque, i should recall one of the many unreal things that happened to me in ecuador.
maybe a future post will recap some highlights from my travel journal.
in any event, we got back last week and have been sick ever since. we built a fort, called it the 'sick fort' and took up residence in there for the last week. my sister said, "the sick fort sounds like something two people would make who didn't want their honeymoon in ecuador to end"
on a different note: this week semi-off work while sick has allowed me a chance to see what we missed. just 10 short days and we had no knowledge of the earthquake in haiti while in galapagos, no knowledge of conan/leno's fiasco, 'youth in revolt' apparently came out (a book i loved in my teens. was the movie any good, those who saw it?)...kind of unreal how much you can miss by unplugging for a week or so. and it's overwhelming to come back to it, to try to catch up. anyway, speaking of conan, i caught the last episode and thought conan's parting speech was brilliant and inspiring:
Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
It's the kind of thing i want to paint on my wall so i can see everyday. anyway, so here i am: back to work, back to life and back to my significantly less magical reality, but i'm ready to work hard and be kind and see amazing things happen!
PS: some photos from the trip are on flickr here if you want to see.
in 48 hours, i will be in ecuador.
1. i don't know how to speak spanish.
2. it's been 3 years since my last vacation
3. i don't think i remember how to take a vacation
4. if i go on vacation, i think there is a 48% chance that i won't ever want to work again ever.
5. i am 1/7 nervous, 6/7 excited. i think this is what they call nervous excitement.
that's my letter, composed on the back of 1950's bonds, written to one of my penpalparty penpals this week. hope it gets there soon, before this photo becomes a spoiler of things to come!
on the subject of penpals, my friend gabby sent me a story written about these people - i heard about them earlier this year but it something else entirely to see their lovely handiwork.
penpal party round 2 is beginning. why is it that i always pick the most busy and insane times in my life to start a timesuck project? in any event, it has been worth the time and work -- penpal party round 1 has been a success so far with lots of people reporting back with happy stories. (see photos + stuff here: http://www.boygirlparty.com/penpalp
that reminds me to share my own little anecdote. this isn't the first time i've organized a project like this.
back in 2001, i started a project called 'penpal nation'
i stamped and self-addressed about 200 blank vintage postcards and left them around the country, handed them out at [music] shows i played, gave them to strangers. about 50 postcards made it back to me. it was interesting.
i like mail.
been busy! see also: post on my other blog
been working like a maniac on some exciting new projects. from painting + designing to the penpal party (see my previous post), holiday orders, social media, upcoming shows and deadlines, etc. i feel like i am about to short circuit, but i love this time of year for exactly this reason. i love the momentum!
in other news, i started a facebook page for boygirlparty today. won't you please visit?
http://www.facebook.com/pages/boygirlpa
(and feel free to spread the word, i'm not sure how these things function otherwise)
I'm putting together a penpal chain in about an hr. Thought of the idea on Twitter when a bunch of people sympathized w/ my message about being frustrated with penpals who don't write back.If you want in, email me before noon PST at susie at! boygirlparty dot com! Here goes nothing...Edit: for PENPAL PARTY #2, email thepenpalparty[at]gmail.com and I'll fill you in when it comes time for round 2!
visit http://boygirlparty.com/penpalparty
Erin and I are holding a sign that says 'goth' and looking all serious. in reality, at the time we were on tour playing (indie pop, not goth) music & having an awesome time. We backtracked and figured out that night it was spring of 2002, and we played the show that night with Green Bean Go, Tami Hart and Sarah Dougher at the now dearly departed Ultramod Compound in Athens, GA.
Erin says it best:
The whole thing is so weird: my obsession with random-internet-photos led me to an incidence of US AS A RANDOM INTERNET PHOTO. Insane. It feels like time travel or something!
We both wonder if we left it in a Harlem Globetrotters book ourselves...that seems like something we would have done.
The photo (now missing from flickr but here's its Google images screenshot)So weird!!!
Oh, and incidentally when I emailed the person it was credited to & asked how they got ahold of the photo, it turns out I have met this person before when doing a show at giant robot ny, but they didn't recognize it as me in the photo.
In conclusion, the world is pint sized and awesome.
Here's a version of the same photo that I have here in my house & another photo in which Erin's probably holding the original polaroid. Seriously, so strange:
shana pointed out that this button looks like a narwhal when rotated.
whoa.
this year is becoming a blur! i can't believe that was a month ago almost to the day.
here's a photo i took yesterday morning while on my morning walk. it was one of those moments where i didn't think i got the photo, but then when i looked at my viewfinder, i realized i got it better than i ever imagined:
i love when that happens.
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